I wouldn't set your hopes so high with cutting aluminium. The router spindle speeds are too high to cut aluminium in one or two passes at 5mm thickness. Your more likely to get 0.5-1mm per pass. You need some serious rigidity, feed speeds, spindle power and cooling to cut alu at 10,000+ rpm 5mm/pass. Thats what i've found anyway with my CNC router anyway (made from extrusions too)
I made some rough calculations on machining alu with a 2-flute 5mm endmill: 10000rpm, 0.1mm/rev feed and 1mm depth of cut, 100% cut width: Tangential cutting force: 81 N Radial cutting force: 35 N Normal cutting force: 15 N Torque required: 0.33 Nm Power required: 175 W 10000rpm, 0.3mm/rev feed and 1mm depth of cut, 100% cut width: Tangential cutting force: 141 N Radial cutting force: 61 N Normal cutting force: 37 N Torque required: 0.60 Nm Power required: 524 W 10000rpm, 0.3mm/rev feed and 3mm depth of cut, 33% cut width: Tangential cutting force: 243 N Radial cutting force: 104 N Normal cutting force: 46 N Torque required: 0.98 Nm Power required: 518 W 100N = gravity of 10.18kg. This is just to give you an idea on the relationships of the different speeds. 0.3mm/rev @ 10000rpm is a feed of 50mm/s! I doubt the endmill would be able to hold up to the forces in the last one. However, if your machine can hold these forces and does not show chatter, you have built an impressive machine.
do u mean by 10000rpm, 0.1mm/rev 1m per minute ? thats still way to fast i would obviously make the router go much slower. This is not like an industrial machine where theres no time
Indeed. But the idea was to give some maximum values for reference. If you can do faster, you can also do slower.
i couldnt update yesterday anymore, i came back from our shop at 1 in the morning today im gonna do some work on it, i think ill finish it up to a point where only the engines are missing !
Really sweet build, I envy you and your shop. (I have to share a garage with my parent, I can barely fit a bike in it ) You might want to put a skirt over the rails to keep the chips off the rails. Just a thought.
uhm, today i hit a wall and i have to redesign some aspects of the z axis, but maybe i get it all together tomorrow !
So, again its update tiem The actual state of the main assembly: now, up to making the z achsis for the third time ! ( as u can guess i didnt work out before ) Measuring !!!!!! cutting / drilling the base plate ! Parts halfway assembled on the base plate: Drilling / cutting the the second plate ( which will later on hold the tool ) Assembled !! ( on top one of my stepper motors which finally made their way ) And, totally unrelated 2 x 25 cm Bass in closed boxes, i love u deadmau5...
What are you going to use for the spindle? I'm curious about finding a 'router' rig that doesn't have that insane, high pitched, "SKREEEEEEEEE" sound.